One can criticise a judgment, but attributing political motives wrong: Salve

Noted jurist Harish Salve said that one has the right to criticise court judgments, but to say that a judge acted in favour of a political party is wrong. He added that people who are not elected now feel that they can impose their will on the government through courts.

New Delhi: Noted jurist Harish Salve on Friday said a lot of people who are not elected representatives feel that they can impose their will on the government through the courts.

He made the observation while asserting that one can criticise a judgment and even a judge, but attributing motives to them is wrong.

The senior advocate also said violation of privacy is a serious issue and that private data is a valuable property but Indians are not serious about it.

Salve, while speaking during a webinar on the issue of 'Insulting the Judiciary from Social Media Diatribes', said, "To say judgement is to favour a political party or judge has acted in favour of political party is wrong. Supreme Court is not a dartboard. You can criticise a judgment saying the judge has taken a conservative line."

Salve said some people have got used to pushing the Supreme Court for relief.

"When they do not get relief from Supreme Court, they say judges are not doing this because of this reason... Some people are pushing the boundaries by saying Supreme Court deserves 'F' grade for its handling of migrants. I have been reading these articles. They are wrong," Salve said.

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"A lot of people who are not elected feel that they can impose their will on the government through courts. One can criticise that court saying that (in migrants' case) either the court should have intervened or not.. but to say that the court is scared of the government is wrong," he said.

He further added, "If I argue a case and I lose, I should think that I tried my best but I lost. But if I get a feeling that the judge did not not give a judgment in my favour because of ... what newspapers might write, then I am worried," he said.

"If a judge does not agree with me, he is dishonest - This tendency must be curtailed. We owe it to the system. We have let our systems down," Salve said.

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The senior advocate also said that one may disagree with the court's judgment on whether 4G has to be allowed or not (in the context of Jammu and Kashmir), but to say that the Supreme Court has not stood with the people of the region is wrong.

Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul showed the way in the Supreme Court in the hearing, Salve said. "He said, if you have no faith in us, you do what you want," Salve noted.

He further said that comments made by judges should not be reported.

"'Supreme Court slams so and so' is a headline you hear a lot. We need a code of conduct for Court reporters. Media only should write these regulations," he said.

(PTI Report)